Collections

The National Library holds some 10 000 000 collection items of national heritage significance. These include manuscripts, books, pictures, music and ephemera. The podcasts below provide another perspective on some of the highlights from the Library’s collections. For more podcasts on our collections see the media page

National Folk Fellow Talk

National Folk Fellow Presentation:
Join Cath Ovenden, National Library Folk Fellow, as she presents her research on Joe Yates and performs some of his music with musicians Wendy Hodgins and Steve Cook.

How the West was Won

Harold White Fellow Presentation: How the West was Won.The story of how
prospectors such as Lang Hancock and Stan Hilditch
interacted with foreign and Australian-owned mining companies and state and federal governments forms one
facet of the mineral boom that was to transform Australia's
economy and society after 1960. Dr David Lee is Director of Historical Publications and Information at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Wartime Diaries of a Truant Surgeon

Harold White Fellow Presentation: Wartime Diaries of a Truant Surgeon Dr Kent Fedorowich is Reader in British Imperial and Commonwealth History at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Held in association with the Australian Prime Ministers Centre, Museum of Australian Democracy.

Letters to Lindy

Harold White Fellow Presentation: Letters to Lindy. Playwright Alana Valentine discusses her theatre work inspired by letters to Lindy Chamberlain held in the National Library's manuscripts collection.

Stealing Boyhood

Harold White Fellow Presentation: Stealing Boyhood
Dr Christine Cheater will discuss the experiences of Indigenous boys who were institutionalised during the 1930s & 1940s as a result of enforced separation from their families.

Harold White Fellow Presentation: The Globalisation of the Mingei Aesthetic. Japan Fellow, Dr Chiaki Ajioka, examines the impact of the Japanese Mingei (folk craft) ideal on Western craft movements in the USA and Australia during the twentieth century.

The Australian who Invented the Commonwealth: Professor James Cotton

Harold White Fellow Presentation: The Australian who Invented the Commonwealth
Professor James Cotton discusses the remarkable career of the Australian H. Duncan Hall, from his pioneering work through the League of Nations to the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth.

Transnational Connections: Professor Neville Kirk

Harold White Fellow Presentation: Transnational Connections: Labour Networks across Australia, New Zealand and
Britain
Professor Neville Kirk discusses Tom Mann and Robert Ross, activists, educators and journalists. Neville Kirk is an Emeritus Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom.

Nancy Keesing and the Naked Book - Dr Lyn Gallacher

Harold White Fellow Presentation: Dr Lyn Gallacher explores one of the delights of Keesing’s archive: her exchange of letters between 1966 and 1974 with writer David Martin. The correspondence shows Keesing’s version of ‘national identity’ expanding during a critical period in the growth of Australian cultural awareness.

Harold White Fellow Presentation: Dr Gary Hickey, the current Japan Fellow. is a curator and scholar of Japanese art. He is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland and is on the directorial board of the Tokyo-based International Ukiyo-e Society.

Burma-Watching: A Retrospective

Dr Andrew Selth surveys a wide range of sources to see how perceptions of Burma have changed over time. He has
been watching this fascinating country for 40 years, as a diplomat, strategic intelligence analyst and research scholar.

Coal Seam Gas??Frack? or ?Frack-off??

Harold White Fellow Dr Luke Keogh explores the quiet history of coal seam gas
and examines new oral history interviews from the Library’s
collection that shed light on local community views of
the industry..

Melanesia: The History and Politics of an Idea

Stephanie Lawson is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on postcolonial approaches to history and politics in the Pacific Islands, with a particular focus on the tensions between anthropological and humanist approaches.

'Exposing the Australians in focus' Australiana Photo-books of the late 1960s

Harold White Fellow Presentation:
Australiana Photo-books of the late 1960sIn the late 1960s, Australia's best writers, designers and
photographers collaborated to create photo-books
that generated a vibrant discussion of Australian
identity.
Presented by Dr Martyn Jolly.

Shrieking-Cockatoos

Harold White Fellow Presentation:
The Fight for Women's Suffrage in Australia and BritainAfter they gained the right to vote in 1902, a group of Australian women involved in the Australian suffrage campaign visited Britain and became committed to the cause of their British sisters. Presented by Dr Béatrice Bjon

The Actor's Mirror

Harold White Fellow Presentation: From the Riverbed to the Emperor's Gaze
The Kabuki Woodblock Prints of Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900)
Amy Reigle Newland's talk focuses on three Kabuki stars from the Meiji period (1868–1912)—Ichikawa Danjūrō IX, Onoe Kikugorō V and Ichikawa Sadanji I—and their portrayal by the premier artist of actor imagery at the time, Toyohara Kunichika.

Soldiers of Tin

Harold White Fellow Presentation:
Nature and Labour in Colonial Australasia
Dr Amrita Malhi's presentation discusses questions in relation to the tin mines established by the Billiton Company in its place of origin on Belitung Island, off Sumatra in the Netherlands East Indies.

Balancing between Empires

Harold White Fellow Presentation: The Early Years of the Australian Instituteof International Affairs
Dr Priscilla Roberts explores how prominent Australians, such as Sir Frederic Eggleston, viewed the AIIA and sought to balance and negotiate conflicting interests.

'Gold and Wool Are So Yesterday'

Harold White Fellow Presentation Charting Japan's Observations of Australia's Resources DevelopmentDr Donna Weeks examines the ways in which ‘natural resources’ have underpinned the relationship between Japan and Australia for more than a century and Australia’s current and future relations in the Asia-Pacific region.